MARGINALIA: When the Tide Brought a Teacher

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 7 November) — The sea is a storyteller.

Yes, it was a storyteller and has always been so.

It carries memories, not just ships. It holds the whispers of travelers who once dared to cross its uncertain blue.

One of them was a man we now remember every November 7—Shaykh Karim al-Makhdum.

They say he arrived on the island of Simunul sometime in the 14th century.

No motorboats. No flags. Just faith, wind, and waves.

He built a mosque. Not a grand one, though. But a humble house of prayer that would outlive him by centuries. Its wooden pillars still stand today, witnesses to the moment Islam first touched our shores.

But more than that mosque, he built something else: a bridge.

Between sea and shore. Between belief and belonging. Between the known and the yet-to-be-discovered.

I often think of him when I recall another figure: Shariff Muhammad Kabungsuwan.

One came by sea, the other by river. Both came not as conquerors, but as connectors.

Their stories remind us that Islam in the Philippines did not descend by sword or decree. It flowed like water, finding its way into valleys and hearts.

And maybe that’s why our faith has always had a rhythm of the sea.

When I recently visited Cotabato’s Pulangi River, I thought: “This water once carried stories.” The same kind that carried Sheikh Makhdum to Tawi-Tawi.

Faith travels best on moving water.

Every year, officials lay wreaths on his burial site. Children recite Surah al-Fātiḥah. Tourists take pictures. Speeches are made.

But the real commemoration happens elsewhere. I mean, in the quiet ways we live what he taught.

In teaching our children to say Bismillah before eating. In greeting a Christian neighbor with peace. In holding firm to the truth even when no one applauds.

That’s heritage. Not as nostalgia, but as continuity.

As a student of history and culture, I see Sheikh Makhdum Day as more than a date.

It’s a reminder: Islam is not foreign here. It didn’t “arrive.” It returned to a land already yearning for Oneness.

It’s a call: to make faith visible in our governance, our schools, our peacebuilding work. To make culture our compass, not our costume.

And it’s an invitation: to tell our stories, again and again, until even the sea recognizes our voices.

In my presentation on Shariff Kabunsuan in Bangkok, Thailand, a few years ago, I said: “The river is not just geography. It is genealogy.”

I’ll say the same today: The sea is not just boundary. It is beginning.

Sheikh Makhdum’s story reminds us that every journey of faith begins with one small landing; that is, one heart ready to receive.

So, when we celebrate Sheikh Makhdum Day, we are not just remembering a missionary. We are remembering the first Muslim teacher who taught us how to arrive with purpose.

The Qur’an says:

“It is He who subjected the sea for you, so that ships may sail upon it by His command, and so that you may seek of His bounty, and be grateful.” (Q 16:14)

I imagine Sheikh Makhdum standing on the deck of a small boat, the wind lifting his robe, his eyes fixed on an island ahead.

He did not know it then, but the tide that brought him would carry faith across generations.

And here we are, centuries later, listening to that same tide.

Today, November 7, let’s not just look back. Let’s move forward. By sea, by river, by heart. Because the story of Islam in the Philippines is not just about how it arrived.

It’s how it stays.

In sha’ Allāh.

[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mansoor L. Limba, PhD in International Relations and Shari‘ah Counselor-at-Law (SCL), is a publisher-writer, university professor, vlogger, chess trainer, and translator (from Persian into English and Filipino) with tens of written and translation works to his credit on such subjects as international politics, history, political philosophy, intra-faith and interfaith relations, cultural heritage, Islamic finance, jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), Qur’anic sciences and exegesis (tafsir), hadith, ethics, and mysticism. He can be reached at mlimba@diplomats.com and www.youtube.com/@WayfaringWithMansoor, and his books can be purchased at www.elzistyle.com and www.amazon.com/author/mansoorlimba.]